


The Internship Syndrome

by lagseeing1123



Category: Naruto
Genre: Bisexuality, College, Gay, Interns & Internships, M/M, Physical Therapy, Roommates, Yaoi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-07-14 16:02:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 23,140
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16043795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lagseeing1123/pseuds/lagseeing1123
Summary: Naruto's on his 5th month of PT internship and he has to live in a dorm with a roommate, Kiba who's taking Sports Science. They instantly hit it off but he didn't expect that on the first night, Kiba would come out to him as gay. Will this budding friendship stay as it is or turn into something more? And did I forget to mention Naruto's straight. Rated M. Yaoi. KibaNaru.





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Your New Roommate

It was a hot Sunday afternoon in the capital city of Konoha and Naruto Uzumaki was so glad to have stepped out of the car when they arrived to his destination after a four hour agonizing drive. He wasn't the one driving it though because he had his father to do that for him because even though he had a license, someone would need to drive the car back home. The traffic, even though it was a Sunday, was cursable but all of it would have been avoided, the heat and the traffic if they had driven very early in the morning like they were supposed to but Naruto had overslept after partying with his now ex-co-interns the night before.

Naruto was a 23 year old guy, around 5'10", athletically built, with golden blond spiky hair, deep-blue eyes and tan skin. Quite the surfer model he was. Also, a noticeable feature from him were three whisker-like marks that he has on both his cheeks which were some kind of a birthmark. His father used to say how fond of foxes Naruto's mother was when she was carrying him inside her and it was probably why he was gifted with those marks.

He was a Physical Therapy student and he was then at the final stage of his study which was internship where he needs to fulfill 1600 hours of it so he can graduate. That meant 8 hours a day, for 20 days a month for 10 months that he had to train and work in the clinical setting and apply his book learned knowledge into actual patients. All without remuneration.

It was their university who randomly assigns them to hospitals or clinics. There were clinical rotations in which they are only required to stay for a month and others, for two months. Last month's rotation was already finished and so the tradition of going out on a get together with everyone before the farewell was done.

Starting the next day, Naruto would start his fifth month and he was assigned to the city's major hospital, the best rotation there was and he was to train there for two months. Since he would start the following day, he made the move the day before the start of his duty, which was today.

"Finally!" he exclaimed, over-joyed as he stepped out of the car. His father who looked like he could be his brother from their striking resemblance soon followed.

"So, it's going to be two months of the city life for you huh?" his father said.

"Yeah. It's gonna be tough I know, but I can't say I'm not excited." Naruto grinned. They live in the town next to the city and it was in simple words, rural. Just a simple and peaceful town. It was the city which offered a lot of things, like clubs, malls, places to find some good grub, and it would be the first time for Naruto to be living away from home.

The two went to the trunk of the car and out they took Naruto's luggage which contained his clothing, personal commodities, and stuff he needed as a PT intern including a printer. The luggage was stroller-type and Naruto let the printer rest on top of it, tilting the luggage so the printer wouldn't slide off.

"I know you're excited. But you'll be living on your own now and your mother and I, and your brother won't be there if you need us. Just, take care of yourself son. The city is a lot more dangerous than back home. You never know who you're gonna bump into on the streets." his father reminded him with the genuine look of a worrying parent.

"I know that dad. I promise I'll be careful." Naruto said, hoping it would the anxiety of his father.

"Do you want me to help you unpack?" his dad offered. Naruto would have taken the help in normal circumstances but as an adult, he wanted to do things on his own and it made him feel kinda embarrassed to have to be seen being helped by his dad in unpacking.

"Uh, thanks dad but I can do it myself you know. Have a safe trip home." the blond wished.

"Well, goodbye son. I'll see you when you get a chance to go home, in case you get two successive day-offs."

"I'll go home when I can." And then Naruto gave his dad a quick hug. When he pulled away, his dad entered the car and then Naruto watched it drive away until it was just a blur in the distance.

Naruto took the handle of the stroller luggage and made his way to the entrance of the dormitory that his father found for him. It was a gated establishment with a security guard and after Naruto showed his dorm ID for the two months he would be staying, he was permitted to pass inside. He went to the reception and out came a man who looked like to be in his thirties with a horizontal scar on the bridge if his nose and his hair being tied-up in a ponytail.

"Good afternoon." the said man greeted. "You must be Mr. Uzumaki. My name is Iruka Umino and I'll be the one to escort you to your room."

"Good afternoon too, Mr. Umino. Lead us the way."

And so Mr. Umino lead the way to Naruto's assigned room as he explained the different rules for the dormitory such as only being allowed to have one guest inside, having a curfew of 10:30 PM and the prohibition of alcohol inside the establishment etc. The dorms formed a shape of a 'C' with the middle portion serving as an atrium where tables and chairs were available for access. There were people eating and conversing, some even watching a show on the huge TV placed in the atrium. There was also a public bathroom there and a laundry shop. However, no food establishments were inside the dormitories.

When the two reached a certain section of the dormitories, they went upstairs as it was revealed that his room was on the second floor.

"Oh I almost forgot. Has your father mentioned to you that you will have a roommate?" Mr. Umino asked. He was the one who carried the printer upstairs for Naruto as it would have fallen off if they just let it sit on top of the luggage.

"Yeah he did. But I don't mind 'cause I don't think I'd be able to stay in a room with just myself." the blond chuckled.

"Well, the other tenant here is also quite eager to have a roommate. He's also a college student and has been staying here for more than two years but a week ago his previous roommate had to leave and since you were the next guy who decided to rent here, we had to pair you up with him. And if you're wondering, he's around the same age as you so you don't have to worry about him being an old creepy man."

"Well, that's a relief." Naruto said, scratching the back of his head.

Mr. Imuno knocked on the door, checking to see if Naruto's roommate was inside. After a few seconds, they heard footsteps approaching the door and it was opened, revealing Naruto's roommate.

"Hey Mr. Umino." his roommate greeted. What instantly caught Naruto's eyes were the two distinct red upside-down triangle tattoos on the guy which intrigued him. He appeared to be a lot taller than Naruto, had dark-brown messy hair, dark brown eyes and a skin more tan than Naruto's. Just like Naruto, his built was the athletic-type.

"Good afternoon Mr. Inuzuka. I hope I'm not bothering you for anything important but let me introduce you to Mr. Uzumaki, your new roommate." Mr. Umino presented. The guy looked at the slightly nervous Naruto and gave a slight smirk.

"Finally. I thought I was gonna get stuck in this hole without anyone to talk to for far longer. The whole week got me pretty bored." the guy said in relief. He then turned to look at Naruto and extended his hand. Naruto took it and he felt the firm grip of the guy as he shook his hand.

"Hey, my name is Kiba Inuzuka. You may call me Kiba, and it looks like I'll be your roommate."

"Nice to meet you Kiba. I'm Naruto Uzumaki, and you may call me Naruto." he said in return. If he wanted to be on a first name basis that fast, Naruto had no qualms about it. He preferred calling people by their first names anyway.

"Naruto? Just like the one in ramen?" Kiba raised a brow.

"Yeah. I got the name from a hero in one of my godfather's novels and he was eating ramen when he thought of the name for the character."

"It's good to see you're already on good terms." Mr. Umino said in between the two's exchange. "So Naruto, here is your copy of the room's key. Don't lose it as it cost $15 for a replacement. There is a locker inside the room where you can keep your valuables. You just have to provide your own lock. So, I guess I'll leave you then. I think Mr. Inuzuka here would be happy to show you around."

"Yeah, I'll show him around, no problem." Kiba said. Mr. Umino left the two boys and Naruto went inside along with his giant luggage.

"That's quite a big bag you got there. Mind if I ask why you're staying at this dorm?"

"I don't mind. I'm a physical therapy intern at Konoha General Hospital and I start tomorrow. I live 2 hours away from here, well 4 hours with traffic, so I decided to just stay at this dorm to save me the trouble of driving to the hospital. So, what about you?" Naruto then asked back.

"Before that I'll show you the bedroom." Kiba said. The room was regular in size and it could probably house 3-4 people but the management made it so that only 2 were allowed at the cost of higher rent. But Naruto didn't mind the higher pay because he wanted to be able to concentrate in doing internship related stuff and he thought that more than 2 people in a dorm room was too crowded. He didn't want to stay in a room for 1 person only thanks to his extrovert personality and it would cost double as to what he would be paying if there were 2. So the best choice was a room for 2 people.

In the area near the door, there was a couch for three people and a TV in front of it. If you pass by it there was the kitchen, at least a smaller version of it which included a sink, an electric stove, a microwave, kitchen utensils and two cupboards. There even was a mini-fridge making Naruto thank the heavens because he didn't have to worry about not having cold water and food storage. They made their way past it and that was where the bathroom was located. And at the far-edge of the room was the bedroom. They went inside and Naruto saw two single sized bed, one on each side of the room with one nightstand for each bed and between the nighstands was a study table, and again thank heavens, air-conditioning. There were two cabinets opposite the table where they could store their clothes and two drawers under each cabinets.

"This place is perfect. Way to go for my dad to find this place. And it's only a 5 minute walk to the hospital too." Naruto exclaimed. He could definitely live there for two months.

"You're right about that." Kiba agreed. "And to answer your question a while ago, I'm a fourth year student in Konoha University, getting a bachelor's degree in Sports Science and majoring in Human Performance and Strength and Conditioning."

"Really? That's so cool. You know, I only wanted to be a physical therapist so that I can be a sports trainer. Especially since the pays gonna be hell of a lot."

"That's awesome. You should totally teach me things you know about body conditioning. I hear physical therapists are supposed to know every single muscle and bone in the body and are like masters of exercises." Kiba said, the enthusiasm radiating from him. Naruto felt flattered that someone would want to learn from him. And when Kiba mentioned about working out, Naruto immediately knew why Kiba had such a good physique, even better than his own.

"Yeah we are supposed to, but there are just too many of them I couldn't memorize all of them yet. There are a lot of other things we are supposed to study so I plan on fully memorizing them only after graduation once I review for the licensure exam." the blond told him. He sat on one bed, the one he assumed to be allotted for him because it was tidier than the other one. He opened his luggage and the clothes literally burst out.

"How'd you place all of that in there?" said a surprised Kiba.

"I don't really know." Naruto replied and both chuckled. The two were already comfortable with each other and Naruto was happy about that. In truth he feared he wouldn't get along with whomever roommate he would have but Kiba seemed like a really nice and cool guy.

"I see you still have to unpack your things so I'll leave you here. My cabinet's the one on the right near the door by the way. I was playing Assassin's Creed Rogue when you got here so I have to get back on the game. You can play with me later if you like." Kiba offered.

"I'll consider that." Naruto said and then Kiba went out the bedroom to get back to his game.

'I never thought I'd meet a guy as loud and talkative as me.' the blond said to himself as he arranged the clothes from his luggage on the bed. There were 5 pairs of navy blue scrub suits which he'd wear in the hospital, undergarments, ordinary clothes, pajamas and other things.

'I suppose I should take a bath after I've settled in. Yeah, a bath sounds nice.'

After taking a quick bath he threw on an orange tank top and board shorts and went to the living room to find Kiba still playing with an Xbox 360.

"Hey, did you bring that console here?" Naruto asked. He sat down beside Kiba and watched him play the game.

"Yeah. My school schedule gives me a lot of free time that I had to bring it here so I wouldn't get bored. You may use it if you want to."

"Well, thanks I guess. Why so hospitable by the way? Seriously, you're making me feel like I'm at home and that we've been friends for a long time."

"I'm just that friendly. And I already had to endure one week of being alone here so having you for company is like a life saver. So, you wanna play? I have two player games here, shooter games, fighting games."

"What shooter games do you have?"

"Battlefield 4, Far Cry 3."

"Let's play BF 4." Naruto suggested.

"Alright. You better prepare yourself 'cause I'm good at this game." challenged Kiba.

"I'd say bring it on." Naruto accepted.

The two played a free for all battle online. And in just a few minutes, it was clear who the better player was and Kiba was proven to be telling the truth. He managed to have the highest amount of kills and at least 50% of those kills were from shooting Naruto, mostly executing headshots and Naruto couldn't even lay a hand on the brunet. They played for 4 rounds with Kiba winning 2 of those rounds. Naruto was only able to kill Kiba's avatar for around 6 times for the last 3 rounds which frustrated the blond but nonetheless he was cool with it.

"Hey look at the time it's almost 6 in the evening. I should probably get something to eat." announced Naruto as he stood up from the couch. "Do you cook food here, eat outside or just get take-outs?"

"I usually just eat outside. Sometimes I and previous roommate have food delivered. And when my classes are until 6 PM, I eat before going home. But when I get home earlier, I just go outside the dorm again to eat outside. I'll be eating outside tonight. If you want we could eat outside while I show you around."

"That would be nice. Is there any ramen shop nearby?" Naruto asked straightaway. If ever he was going to go look for food, it was ramen he would search for first being it his favorite.

"There is. Ichiraku's the name if I remember."

"AWESOME! I love Ichiraku's ramen. They're like gifts from heaven." Naruto's blue-eyes seemed to shimmer and Kiba wondered how just mentioning Ichiraku to his new roommate could elicit such a response.

"You love ramen that much huh? Let's go out then."

"Right."

"And remember to take with you your dorm ID so it won't be a hassle getting back in since you're new."

"Okay."

The two went out the dormitories and walked towards Ichiraku's which was in the direction towards the university Kiba attends and opposite to the hospital. They were met with different establishments with dozens of signboards glowing in neon lights. It was seldom that Naruto saw such a colorful night as he lived most of his life in his hometown where there aren't many places to go to. It excited him very much as he saw the street filled with different places to eat and it made his mouth water. He already made a note of the places he would try in the two months he'd be staying in that area. But ramen was his prey for the night.

"The city is so lively. It's really rare for me to find myself here, only when my family has to go shopping or wanted to dine in a fine restaurant. But now I'll be living here for two months."

"You'll only stay here for two months?" asked Kiba in surprise. "I thought you'd be staying longer."

"I only have to train in that hospital for two months and then after that I'm going to another hospital, or clinic. Though I still don't know when I'll be assigned next." Naruto explained. The blond didn't notice it as he was looking straight ahead but Kiba's lips formed into a small frown.

"Oh." the brunet sighed. "Well, here we are, Ichiraku Ramen." he proclaimed as they reached the shop, bringing back his happy self in no time. They went inside the establishment and were met with the warm steamy atmosphere of the place.

Naruto eagerly took a sit on one of the stools placed in front of the counter and Kiba sat beside him. A young girl appeared in front of them to take their orders.

"Good evening, welcome to Ichiraku Ramen. What would be your orders sirs?" she asked with a warm smile. The girl was a brunette who was wearing a white bandana to hold her long hair back.

"One pork miso ramen miss." Naruto said excitedly and returned the smile given by the waitress. The girl then turned to Kiba.

"I'll have a beef ramen."

"Would that be for dine-in or take-out?"

"We'll eat it here." answered Naruto.

"One pork miso and one beef." the girl then shouted to the back where the ramen was being prepared. "Your orders will be ready in three minutes and I'll be back when it's ready."

"Okay." Naruto smiled again at the girl. Kiba on the other hand was watching intently the exchange between the two, feeling a bit down on what he saw.

"She's quite cute don't you think?" Naruto asked Kiba as soon as the girl left to tend to other customer's. The question caught Kiba of guard, not expecting Naruto to ask something like that.

"Yeah… she is." the brunet agreed. "And quite the cheerful one too."

"I agree."

"So I'd take it you don't have a girlfriend, with you smiling at her like that." Kiba said, telling Naruto what he inferred from the earlier exchange between him and the girl.

But as soon as Kiba mentioned the word girlfriend, Naruto tensed up. It immediately brought back memories of his girlfriend, or rather now ex-girlfriend.

"Hey, is something wrong?" Kiba asked in a worried tone, not failing to notice Naruto's reaction.

"Oh nothing. It's just, my girlfriend broke up with me last month." the blond said in a depressed tone.

"I'm sorry I didn't know." Kiba apologized and hearing that, a question he was secretly asking himself was confirmed.

"It's okay. I really liked her but I guess she just didn't feel the same way about me. But it's not like I hadn't known that before. It took me 2 years of asking her out until she finally agreed to date me but it appears we're just not meant for each other."

Kiba could feel the sadness in his tone and it made him feel a bit guilty for having Naruto to tell that and remember it. A minute of silence passed between them, neither one knowing how to proceed with their conversation until it was broken when the waitress returned with their orders.

"Here you go, one pork miso ramen and one beef ramen." she announced as she set their orders in front of them. "Enjoy your meals."

"Ah, finally." Naruto sighed as if he was just given ice cold water after being stuck in a desert. "Itadakimasu!"

Kiba watched as Naruto attacked the ramen, never having seen someone so enthusiastic into eating it. He broke his own chopsticks but first had a taste of the soup using the dipper-looking spoon. He could taste the umami seeping in the soup and it wasn't too bland or too strong. It was just the right amount of it. He had only eaten at Ichiraku's two times before and he too could say it was the best ramen shop in the country.

"So, what about you? Do you have a girlfriend?" And if the question earlier didn't catch Kiba off guard enough, this one surely did. He was ever grateful he already swallowed the soup and noodles in his mouth or else he would have sprayed it towards the counter or Naruto if he happened to face his direction.

"No, I don't." he answered simply.

"Oh, I would have pegged you for someone who's not single. I mean no homo but, you look like you could be the heartthrob of your school." Hearing that, Kiba was sure he blushed but with the hot ramen and all the steam in the room, Naruto wouldn't have noticed it.

"I… don't know what to say. You don't look so bad yourself?"

"Wait are you asking me a question?"

"Huh?"

"I'm just kidding. Hey, we should work-out together at the gym. I bet you can teach me a lot of things on how to get those cuts of yours." said the blond, looking at Kiba's arms which was outlined noticeably in his body fit tee-shirt. "PTs know how to exercise but what we know isn't exactly for aimed for shaping up the body."

"I'll show you where I work out then. When we go back to the dorms, there is the gym I go to just across the street. It's a nice one too. Lots of stuffs and the equipment looks as if they're brand new."

"Cool. I'd have to wait until I get my schedule though. This hospital has its rehabilitation department open from Monday to Sunday but we get two day-offs a week. One is already set on Saturday in case we have to go to school that day, and the other is any other day in the week."

"Just tell it to me when you learn about it then." said Kiba. The two continued to eat their ramen with Naruto having to order two more bowls. Kiba yet again was made to wonder something about Naruto and how someone as fit as him manages to stay in shape after eating all that stuff but he also wondered if he only ate like that when it's ramen. And with Kiba already finished with his bowl, all he could do was watch the blond as he ate and talk about stuff. And Kiba knew by then that it was going to be a hard two months of his life because there was no denying that he starting to like Naruto more than just a friend. That fast.

…

"Oh man that really filled me up. I am so going back there next week. Or maybe after 3 days. I just love ramen that much." Naruto said as he walked inside their room, Kiba following him inside.

"What's with your obsession with ramen anyway?" Kiba asked, giving him a curious look.

"I don't really remember when I started to love eating it that much but maybe it's because I was indirectly named after a ramen condiment. Well, since I'm already filled-up I better call the day quits and sleep. I still have an early day tomorrow. They want us to report at 7:15 for the first day of duty. What time do you usually have to get up by the way?" Naruto asked after being reminded that he had to set an alarm. He didn't want to disturb Kiba in case he didn't have to wake up as early as him.

"My earliest class starts at 8 but I wake up at 6 AM to jog then get back here at around 6:30."

"Great. That saves me a lot of trouble. I don't want to be waking you up with my alarm when you still don't have to."

"How thoughtful of you."

Naruto then brushed his teeth and took a leak in the bathroom before announcing to Kiba, who was watching TV in the living room that he was heading off for bed. As he was making his way back to the bedroom, he heard Kiba call his name.

"Naruto."

"Yes?" the blond turned back.

"There's something I have to tell you. I hope you won't get mad at me for this."

"What is it? I'm sure it's nothing bad for me to get mad at you."

"Earlier, when you asked me if I had a girlfriend, I said no." Naruto nodded, remembering Kiba having said that. A smirk appeared in Kiba's lips before they opened again as he spoke.

"Well, that's because I'm gay."

Naruto stared at him wide-eyed.

"You're… gay?"

A/N: Yo. lagseeing1123 here. I'm posting this story of mine from FanFiction. I will not be proofreading it again so I'll just copy paste what's already uploaded in FF. Story's technically finished and I will post everytime I can. 

Leave your comments.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

One Hell of a First Day

"You're… gay?" Naruto repeated as he stared dumbfounded at Kiba.

"I thought it would be best to tell you. You don't have any problems about it do you?"

"No, no. I don't have any problems about it." the blond said in a panic. "I'm just… really surprised though. You look, well uh, straight."

"Not all gay guys are girly, if that's what you're thinking." Kiba smirked.

"I know. But seriously… I didn't expect."

"I just want to be honest. As roommates, we need to trust each other. And I don't want to be hiding it. I've already had the whole middle school until high school of doing that. You're not homophobic are you?" Kiba asked, but by then instead of being nervous when he had just came out to Naruto, he managed to say it in a way of teasing the blond. His confidence in his sexuality has increased in college and with the help of his friends which was why he had little difficulty in deciding that he should tell it to the blond as early as possible.

"Of course not. But I can't say I have had gay friends before. I'm cool with them in school but I have never really hang out with a gay guy. So, I'm quite thrilled for this uh… new experience." Naruto said, trying all he could so Kiba wouldn't think he was some homophobic person.

"You're not just saying this so I won't feel bad are you?"

"No… I'm not."

"And just to tell you, you shouldn't be scared of me. As hot as you are, I won't do anything to you unless you want me to." Kiba said in a sinister tone. He then saw Naruto blush at this and he went inside the bedroom, unable to meet Kiba's eyes anymore.

"Good night." he heard Naruto shout from inside the bedroom.

"Good night."

Naruto leaned back against the door, able to feel his own heart beating.

'Did he just call me hot? Does that mean he actually is gay?' he asked himself in his thoughts.

'Calm down. It's not like you haven't met any gay guys before. And it's not like they made any advances on you so why are you getting scared? Just like he said, you shouldn't be scared. Come on, he's a very cool guy. You just have to set aside that single fact and everything would be as if it was normal. Yeah, you should just sleep for now.'

When Naruto was done reflecting with himself, he turned the AC on into a low cool, turned off the lights, set his phone's alarm to 6 AM, placed it on the nightstand and went to sleep.

…

Naruto woke up the next morning to the sound of his alarm and even though he wanted to sleep a few more minutes, he knew he had to get up 'cause being late was not an option. Even just a second of being late meant that he would have to serve a half more day of make-up duty for the hospital and he didn't want any more work. So he got out of bed to notice that Kiba was not in the room and he could hear that the TV was already on, it being on a news channel. He took a pair of his scrub suits and walked out the bedroom. When he stepped out, Kiba noticed him and greeted him a 'good morning' in which he greeted back. The way Kiba said it was so casual it was as if the last exchange between them had been forgotten.

He went inside the bathroom and took a warm shower, thankful for how the dorm room seemed to have all the commodities he needed. As he washed himself, the thought of what Kiba confessed sprung out his mind. But as he told himself the evening before, Kiba's being gay shouldn't matter and he needed to remember that.

After finishing, he stepped out the bath already dressed in his hospital scrubs uniform. He went back to the bedroom and wore his rubber shoes, his watch, sprayed some cologne and made sure to comb his wild hair for it to be at least presentable. But it was stubborn and since he wasn't a fan of wearing hair gel or wax, he just let it be. He took his orange back pack which contained all the necessary equipment he would need for PT and then went back out again into the living room.

"That was fast." Kiba remarked as he saw Naruto appear near him.

"Well, guys don't need thirty minutes to take their showers."

"Right you are. Anyway, I've told you that I jog in the morning so I'll be heading off then. Don't forget to lock the door and bring your keys when you get out." Kiba reminded and he went out the door, clad in a grey sweatshirt, black jogging pants and running shoes.

Naruto checked the time and it was already 6:25 which meant that he had at least 45 more minutes to find breakfast and go to the hospital. He turned off the TV and the lights and locked the door after going out.

On his way to the hospital he ate gyuudon on a shop along the way. When he reached the hospital, he punched in his time card, making a 7:07 mark on the first day of the month. He was glad that there was the orientation around the hospital two days before as he would probably have been lost trying to find the time clock. As soon as he was done with that he hurried himself to the Rehabilitation department of the hospital where he would train. On the way he bumped into his classmate Shikamaru, one of the two PT interns assigned to the hospital who were his classmates. He was a guy with some kind of pineapple hairstyle tied in a pony and was at the top of their class but was the laziest person Naruto has ever met in his life.

"Yo Shikamaru. I was almost sure you'd end up late on the first day. You're usually still asleep by this hour." Naruto greeted.

"Yo." Shikamaru halfheartedly replied. "It's such a drag to wake up in such an early hour but being late means additional working days and that would be much more troublesome."

"And that totally makes sense." Naruto agreed. And so the two made their way inside the department in which they greeted the regular PT staffs. Since the orientation was already given, Naruto had already been assigned to one PT staff along with a partner. His partner was a girl from a different school and her name was Ino Yamanaka. She had long platinum blond hair tied-back into a ponytail, light blue eyes and one of the sexiest bodies Naruto's ever seen.

The PT staff who would supervise and train Naruto and his partner was Ms. Shizune, a petite woman with short black hair with an 8 year experience in being a PT and was one of the senior staffs in the rehab. Her name was known through almost all who rotated in the hospital, even known to those who hadn't rotated yet. Naruto was tipped in his previous months that if he gets assigned to Konoha General Hospital that Ms. Shizune was someone he should pray not to have. But luck wasn't on his side and he was assigned to her.

So far, she has shown to be cheerful as seen when she further instructed Naruto and Ino on what their duties will be as PT interns. Mostly they will treat patients who aren't paying out of their own pockets meaning those with health cards and charity patients since it was a public hospital. Paying patients are treated solely by those with a license.

When the clock hit 8 AM, the rehab officially opened and Naruto's first day started. And what a gruesome first day it was. In the end all he could say was,

Shizune is evil.

…

Naruto's toxic day ended at 5:30 when he finished treating his 6th patient. It was overtime and Naruto still had a lot of take home documents to finish. He calculated that he probably wouldn't be able to sleep until 12 AM and that was if he started doing his work as soon as he arrived at the dorm.

He wasted no time getting out the hospital, passed by on the shop where he ate breakfast and ordered a take-out pork katsudon for his dinner. When he arrived at the dorm, he saw that the lights were on indicating Kiba was already home.

"Oh hey Naruto. How's your first day at the hospital."

"Ugh, it was horrible." Naruto cursed as he let himself fall down on the couch beside Kiba who was watching a cable show. "I had to treat six patients today. Three in the morning and three in the afternoon. Two of them are stroke patients, one has a spinal injury who weighs like 300 pounds, one was an old woman with Parkinson's disease who not only drooled on my arm but we literally took 2 and a half hours just to complete her session and I treated the last two patients simultaneously, one with low back pain and one with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. Thankfully I had my partner Ino help me in preparing stuffs. I am so exhausted." he sighed.

"I didn't imagine a PT's job would be so, hard."

"You certainly haven't heard enough about it then. Sometimes I wonder why I took this course when I could have just taken something that's solely focused on sports like yours."

"The pay's good for therapist, didn't you say?"

"Yeah. But this internship is killing me. I can't wait till I get a license and practice as a sports PT and not in the hospital. Anyway, I already took home katsudon since I still have a lot of paper works to do. The PT assigned to supervise me asked me to do a full re-evaluation on two patients and she wanted it type written in a formal report, not just the checklist they use in the hospital and she wants it passed tomorrow at 8 o'clock sharp. So in case you wanted to go out for dinner, I won't be able to join you." Naruto said, almost apologetic.

"Don't worry about it." Kiba shrugged off. "I can just order some pizza and eat here too."

"I have to start typing these while you wait for pizza. Exhausted as I am, I don't feel that hungry yet." informed the blond and he went inside the bedroom. He took off his shoes, socks and his upper scrubs leaving him in only his white V-neck undershirt and scrub pants. He took out his laptop from his cabinet and set it on the table. He took out his notebook from his backpack containing the patients' information and treatment session details he needed in writing the re-evaluation documents and then proceeded to typing right away.

It didn't take him long to be immersed in his typing and after around 45 minutes, he was halfway done with the first re-evaluation which was faster than usual. But his focus had been broken when he heard his stomach growl.

'Looks like I'm wrong about not being hungry. Better eat something first.'

He saved his work, stood up and closed the screen of his laptop down. He went to the living room and coincidentally there was a knock on the door and the words, 'Pizza delivery' were heard.

"Good timing Naruto." Kiba stated as he stood up the couch and opened the door to reveal the pizza delivery guy. Kiba paid for it while Naruto on the other hand took his katsudon from the table and let it heat in the microwave for 2 minutes.

"I don't know your pizza preference Naruto so I just had them deliver an assorted pie." Kiba informed Naruto as he set the pizza on the smaller table in front of the couch.

"You didn't have to order pizza for me you know." Naruto said. The microwave 'dinged' and out he took the now hot katsudon, setting it also on the table in front of the couch.

"Come on, it's rude to order pizza and not share it." Kiba said as he took a slice of a Hawaiian prepared part of the pizza. "That's kind of why it's made this big and sliced into different pieces.

"Thank you then." the blond said and he too took a slice, getting the one with the pepperoni.

"So, how's your paperwork going? Seems like you're really 'engaged' in getting it done."

"I'm halfway finished with the first report which is kinda fast. I already learned from experience that it's better to start writing them right away than resting first then trying your goddamn hardest to get out of bed to do them."

"Experience huh? How many months have you been an intern anyway?"

"This is my 5th month. The 1st month I was assigned in the hospital near our school in my hometown. My second month I was assigned in an elderly care facility in order to train us in the elderly population. My 3rd month was the exact opposite and I had to deal with pediatric clients, most whom are special population. Now that really tested my temper into its limits and I'll tell you another time why."

"I think I can understand that. I for one don't like kids."

"It's not like I don't like kids but sometimes they can be a full."

"The 4th month, which is the rotation before this one was the best I had yet. It was a sports centered rotation and we worked with the varsity players of our university. We helped design their training programs and supervise them. We also accompany them when they have games to play."

"Really? That sounds awesome. That's what I wanna do that's why I took sports science. I used to be a basketball varsity in high school, the power forward of the team but sadly I wasn't the one chosen for a college scholarship. They gave it to our point guard who could literally pass through any opponents he faced, ankle breaking them like they were drunks in the court. I couldn't beat someone like that but I still play basketball as pastime." Kiba shared, quickly earning Naruto's interest. Basketball was Naruto's favorite sport and though he wasn't that gifted in playing it, he too also enjoys playing the game.

"Power forward huh? Are you able to dunk?" the blond keenly asked.

"Am I able to dunk? I even accidentally hit the ring with my head one time I was making a dunk."

"No way! What's your vertical?"

"Around 46 inches." Kiba told him, using his hand to give Naruto an estimate on how high it was by raising it at that height from the floor.

"That's amazing. What's your height anyway?"

"I'm 6'3"."

"You're almost like Kagami from Kuroko no Basket."

"You watch that show too."

"Yeah. I love basketball."

"You should play with us. My schoolmates and I will be playing this Saturday. We'd love to have additional players." invited Kiba. Naruto grinned as he really wanted to play ball and his internship has prevented him from doing it so far, but only until now.

"I'll join. I'm not varsity level but I can handle my own."

The two conversed more as they ate, Naruto taking in his food as fast but as safe as possible. He didn't want to make a fool of himself in front of his new friend by choking. But he did need to eat fast as he still had a lot of things to type. When he finished both his katsudon and share of pizza, he returned to his laptop and went on with his work.

When he was finished with the first re-evaluation document, it was already 8:15 and that was when he heard Kiba come inside the bedroom. He kept his focus on his work and Kiba didn't bother to disturb him. He heard shuffling on the bed and with curiosity, he turned to look at Kiba who was then laying down with his head on a pillow and reading a small book. Naruto couldn't read what it was as only half of the back cover was visible but he deduced it was a manga judging from the shape and kanjis written. It made him wonder what manga it was and if Kiba would let him borrow it sometime when he wasn't busy like in his next day-off. Who knows they might share the same interests in manga and anime.

Naruto finished by around 11:30 PM, the second re-evaluation taking longer to write. He felt that his head was going burst from how much thinking it had to do. It was easy to just type out stuff but making sense of the data he gathered from the patients, making diagnosis and prognosis, creating feasible rehabilitation goals and the treatment plan was nerve wracking. After making a quick check on both documents, he printed them and placed them inside his clear book and placed it inside his backpack so he would not make a repeat on what happened during the first month of his internship where he typed until 2 AM, only to forget to bring the documents in the morning because he was so sleepy.

When he stood up from the chair, he could see Kiba already asleep. He really hoped Kiba didn't mind that the light was on. Next time he needed to stay up late, he would transfer to the living room to continue his work when Kiba needed to sleep.

…

The following day, Naruto did almost the same routine in the morning. He arrived early and passed his paperwork to Ms. Shizune. She did a quick look on the documents and told Naruto that they would discuss it during her break but as Naruto expected for the second day, things were going still going to be toxic. Ms. Shizune presented him the list of his patients for the day, 5 of them and one is a new patient which meant he would need to do an initial evaluation and if what he did last night was hard enough, initial evaluations were harder as he needed to ask about the patient's history and it was not his strong point. Sure he was a talkative person who liked to converse with people, but to do it in a constrained time and to be able to ask all the necessary question was very different. He always missed important things but he was used to it anyway and so he just prepared himself for the coming wave of patients. He just reminded himself that after the first day and second day, he would likely be treating patients he met before because of the M-W-F and T-Th-S schedule of the patients.

Come afternoon, Naruto and his partner Ino had to treat a common patient because said patient was bedside and in a coma but most relevantly, huge. A single therapist wouldn't be able to handle moving the patient into different positions and moving his extremities to prevent muscle tightness for if or when he wakes up. Cases like this wasn't really predictable. They just give physical therapy to them for the first week to help delay loss of body function, prevent bedsores and pulmonary complications and then they'll teach what they do to the family members until they are deemed ready to do the patient care themselves without regular PT supervision.

Throughout their session, there was only one thing that Naruto could not fail to notice and it was that look that his partner gave him. The look that she wants to jump him and Naruto knew he had to keep his guard on.

He wouldn't deny that Ino was hot as hell, he already decided that the first time he saw her but internship was not the right time for engaging with girls in that fashion. He experienced it first hand when his now ex-girlfriend Sakura dumped him on their 4th month of internship, saying that their relationship wouldn't work when they couldn't even meet together since they were sent out to opposite sides of the region for their PT training.

At least that what Sakura reasoned out for the break-up. Sakura had been Naruto's dream girl since middle school and it even become a sort of reason why he took up PT as a pathway to becoming a sports trainer. Sakura wanted to become a doctor and took PT as a pre-med course and she was damn good at it too.

Naruto was not the sharpest tool in the box but he studied hard, surprising even his parents and brother when he didn't get any failing graded starting his 4th year of PT. He believed that it would impress Sakura and with his persistence in asking the girl out, she agreed to date him in the second semester of their 4th year.

They went out on dates, studied together and to Naruto's surprise, it was even Sakura who made all the first moves in taking their relationship to the next level. They did 'it' in just their 1st month of going out, which was only a week after when Sakura agreed to be his girlfriend. She proved to be a very sexually needy girl and they'd do it at least once a week, sometimes twice when their schedule permitted. Studying was a ton shit of stress and what better way was there to help relieve it?

But it all stopped when internship came and their relationship ended just a month ago. And because of that internship, there was also the fact that Naruto hadn't had any sexual relief aside from his hand since 4 months ago which brings us back to the situation with Ino.

From the looks of it, Naruto deduced that one day the girl was probably going to ask him for it. It wouldn't be the first time too because there was also this past co-intern girl who wanted to 'hang-out' with just 2 months ago in which he obviously declined since he was still going out with Sakura at that time.

But right now he was single and with the way Ino was looking at him, speaking with him in that sultry voice and purposely bending in front of him to show her defined ass when she reached for something on the floor, he felt that he wouldn't have the strength not to indulge in case that really was Ino's plan and not just Naruto's hallucinations.

When their treatment session finished, Naruto was so glad it was over and he made his way back to the rehab department to get ready for his last patient of the day, making it his focus so he would just forget what happened inside the patient's room. He decided then that pairing up with Ino when treating a patient when no other family member was inside was not a good thing to repeat.

…

When Naruto got home, it was only 5:15 and his roommate wasn't home yet. He finished all his treatment before 4:30 and was very happy about it. He only had to type in one document and he calculated he would finish it by 8 PM if he worked on it immediately after taking a quick shower and changing into cleaner clothes.

After his shower, he sat down again on that chair and proceeded to type on his laptop. He decided that he would just eat later. For two hours, he worked with focus. Even if he had done so many evaluation in the past 4 months, he still wasn't fast in making them. And it was at that time that he heard a call of his name from a familiar voice.

"Naruto, you here?" Kiba asked in a loud voice.

"I'm in the bedroom." Naruto shouted back. A few seconds later, in came Kiba wearing a black tank top and shorts and was sweating heavily.

"What happened to you?" the blond questioned. Since he was looking at Kiba, he saw a much better look at his arms which were now exposed since the tank top was sleeveless. The cuts were beautiful and the sweat on it only seemed to define them more. Naruto felt a bit jealous at the site. No matter how much he lifted weights from before, they only seem to grow bigger but not shaped sexily.

"Just lifted some iron at the gym before going home." Kiba then took off his sweaty tank-top and placed it on the hamper, giving Naruto the clear view of his bare chest and those, wait a minute, 8-pack abs?

"Naruto?"

"Naruto?"

"Hello?" Kiba waved his hand in front on the blond which seemed to shake him out of his stare. The blond had been fixed on admiring those 8-packs that he didn't realize he was staring at Kiba, in which the brunet didn't fail to notice.

"Like what you see?" Kiba said in a teasing manner. It wasn't everyday a straight guy looks at him like that and he wanted to see if he could push a few buttons on Naruto and see how he would react.

Naruto blushed at hearing that, also realizing that he'd been eyeing Kiba like he was checking him out. He wasn't gay and he definitely wasn't checking him out. It was just pure admiration he was doing. And then he remembered that Kiba was the gay one, making it laughable that he, the straight guy, was the one looking at him.

"Yes, but not in the way you're probably thinking." Naruto blurted out it a panic. "It's just I don't often see 8 pack abs, and my own are still a bit hidden within my baby fats."

"You sure about that huh?" Kiba raised an eyebrow at him with an evil smirk on his lips. Naruto was speechless and after a few seconds Kiba burst out in laughter.

"I'm only kidding. Don't mind what I said. Lots of guys get curious about how I got them too."

"Well I guess I'm curious." Naruto said, feigning a chuckle as placed one hand on the back of his head.

"I'm gonna go take a shower. Have you eaten yet?"

"No, I haven't. I have this one document I need to pass tomorrow and I decided to finish it off before eating."

"Another one huh? They sure are giving you a hard time."

"Not tonight though. I'm almost done with it, maybe in just half an hour."

"Well that's cool. We could go out for dinner again." the brunet suggested.

Go out for dinner? That phrase repeated its way in Naruto's mind a few times because uncannily it sounded as if he was asking him on a date.

'Of course he's not asking you out on a date. He may be gay but it's natural for people to go out for dinner with their friends. Stop overthinking things.' Naruto told himself.

"So?" Naruto was then for the second time brought back to Earth by Kiba's voice.

"Yeah, that sounds good. Any place you'd want to recommend?"

"There's this burger shop I've been wanting to visit again and after working out, I need the protein. You up for that?"

"Sure. I like burgers."

"We'll head out once you finish." And with that their awkward conversation ended as Kiba left the room and Naruto stared at the wall for about two minutes to dwell on what just transpired. Living with Kiba for two whole months was definitely going to be out of the ordinary.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 03

Liking Yaoi Doesn't Make You Gay

It was Thursday morning and at around 9 AM that Naruto woke up. It was his day-off, the one he gets besides Saturday and he specifically told Kiba that he wanted to oversleep thanks to the stress placed on him by the three successive days of treating patients and making reports.

When his eyes opened, he stared at the ceiling, contemplating on what activities he should do on his day-off. Sleeping for additional hours seemed liked an appealing thing to his body but it wouldn't be productive. He finished his report the night before which was only another re-evaluation and even if the deadline was Friday morning, he worked his ass off the night before so he could fully enjoy his day-off without any more worries.

After around 10 minutes, he got out of bed and went for the living room. He and Kiba did their grocery yesterday evening and Naruto bought himself around 20 cups of instant ramen, his would-be food reserve in cases of emergency. Kiba on the other hand was actually the one who suggested what to buy, including meat, eggs, oatmeal, seasonings, pasta, fruits and vegetables and other stuffs. Naruto didn't peg him to be a cook but judging from last night's spaghetti, he was yet again ever thankful to have him as a roommate. It was delicious and not even his own mother could come up with such a concoction. Kiba said it was healthy too since he tries his best to maintain a proper diet to keep in shape and that it was one thing he learned in school because not only do sports trainers need to make athletes reach their fullest potentials, they need to know what they need to fuel the body for it.

He prepared his cup of seafood ramen and after waiting for 5 minutes for it to cook, he ate it while watching TV. The show was an episode of Haikyuu!, a volleyball themed anime whose main character was of lesser than average height but with super jumping abilities. As a sports enthusiast, it was an anime Naruto waited for every week and even though he already watched it online around two months ago, he didn't mind watching the same episode again. The anime taught a lot about volleyball including rules, player positions and duties, and game play. The thought of him being involved with these kind of people in the near future excited him and he wanted to learn as much as he could as early as possible.

It didn't even take 5 minutes and Naruto already finished up his ramen and he just laid down on the couch to continue watching the show. He positioned his head on the pillow but he felt something under it that was uncomfortable and when he took the pillow out to see what it was, he was surprised to see that it was a manga with its back cover facing him. He thought that it was the one Kiba was reading the other night and was curious so he checked it to see that there were two male characters featured leaning back to back with the other one topless. Seeing that, he instantly got a suspicion as to what it was and even if he got a bit scared to find out what it really was, he turned it around to see the front cover. He blushed hardly at the sight that greeted him.

The cover was screaming pink, and the two male characters were there again, each of them holding a manga. The flustered looking male in white was being embraced by the male in black who was sporting a devious smile.

"It's ya… yaoi." Naruto stated out loud at the realization. He was shocked to find that there but remembered that he really shouldn't be since Kiba was gay. But for someone like him who looks so straight and masculine, he never expected for him to be reading books like that. Even the title sounded so cheesy.

Sekaiichi Hatsukoi: The World's Greatest First Love

Naruto quickly hid the book under the pillow, hoping that Kiba wouldn't notice about him accidentally finding it. He would think Naruto read it and there was no way he was going to read some gay love story.

But then the title really made him curious. The World's Greatest First Love. Now why would the author title a story like that? From what he heard, people usually don't end up with their first loves. And world's greatest? It was one thing to call a first love great, yeah sure some people may have a great first love, but ranking it as the greatest in the world, how was that even done? Pondering over these, his curiosity about the story grew.

'Come on Naruto. There's sure to be pictures of two guys kissing there or worse. Why would you wanna read something so gross?' a voice somewhere in the back of his mind echoed. 'And you're straight so this shouldn't even interest you.'

But even with those thoughts, his hand uncontrollably reached for the book. His curiosity would never be sated if he didn't see what's inside. He turned off the TV and ran towards the bedroom, locking the door. He couldn't risk anyone seeing him with a yaoi manga in his hand. People might think he's gay and he wasn't. He was just curious. Yes, it was all for the sake of curiosity. And he also knew that learning about what books a person reads can give one an insight as to what that person is.

He never had a gay friend before and if reading this yaoi manga could somehow make him understand Kiba better, then he was going to read it for him. He sat down on the chair, placing the book the same table where he types his documents and without turning back, opened the book and started reading.

The story was about two high school lovers who fell apart. Ten years later, the younger of the two named Onodera was already a literary editor. He applied for a job in a publishing company but he was mistakenly assigned to become an editor for shoujou manga even though he has never read a manga before. He was introduced to the chief-editor Takano and the said editor showed him a bit of the work and they met with a manga authoress where Takano pointed out how the manga authoress could improve the kissing scene that she drew. Takano asked her if she knew how to draw a real kissing scene or if she has ever kissed someone, shocking the authoress with the question. She didn't answer his question but said that even if she had kissed someone before, she really wouldn't be able to see it in an angle she needed in portraying the scene in the manga. Takano said that she needed a demonstration and Onodera volunteered to get reference materials but without warning, Takano grabbed hold of Onodera's arm, pulled him close and kissed him on the lips, surprising both Onodera and the manga authoress.

Naruto blushed at the scene, not expecting something like that to happen out of the blue and so early in the story. There was already no doubt about the story's genre and at that moment he came to deciding whether or not he should continue reading. Seeing a kissing scene between two guys, he expected that he would be disgusted but it was just more of surprise that he felt. The guy Onodera was shorter than Takano, and somehow a bit feminine with his smaller and more fragile looking build while Takano portrayed masculinity and dominance. He figured that even though they were both guys, there really wasn't that much difference in seeing the two of them from seeing a guy together with a girl. They just happened to both have the same 5th appendage.

He continued reading now that he got the issue about them being both guys out his head. It turned out that Takano was actually the high school lover of Onodera. Onodera knew that his ex-lover's name was Saga, but Takano who finally realized that Onodera was his high school lover told him that he changed his name to Takano because of his parents' divorce. Takano made a vow that he would make Onodera fall in love with him again.

After an hour of reading, Naruto finished the first volume. The story was good, no doubt about that but the problem Naruto had now was, what happens next? He couldn't wait to read the next volume and Kiba probably has it hidden somewhere. The manga was first published years back so it was possible Kiba has bought them before.

'Wait a minute. Does this seriously mean I'm liking reading a gay story? Does that make me… No, of course not. Reading a gay manga doesn't make you gay. You're a straight guy and you've never seen a guy in that way before. What makes you think a manga could change that? I mean just two days ago, it was somewhat hard for you not to look at Ino with all her seduction attempts. You find her hot so you're still definitely straight. So just calm down.'

Naruto was talking to himself as he pondered about what reading the manga meant for him. He couldn't calm down because a normal straight person wouldn't have even dared sneak a peek into it but he read a whole volume and he was wanting to read more. If he couldn't find where Kiba has hidden the next volumes he would just read it on the internet. So he opened his laptop, impatiently waited for it to start and as soon as it opened, he clicked Chrome and typed in Sekai Ichi Hatsukoi.

'Damn, I hope I don't turn gay for this.'

In his search he not only found the next volumes for the manga but discovered that there was an anime of the show. He went to an anime website and easily found the anime, deciding to watch the whole thing from the start even though he already finished one volume in the manga. While the first episode loaded, he prepared another cup of ramen, yes just like what he ate for breakfast and then went on with a marathon of the anime. He finished watching all 12 episodes of the first season of it by 3 PM and by that time he was sleepy. He closed the laptop and went to sleep.

When he woke up later, it was already 6:45 in the evening and the TV was already sounding from the living room meaning Kiba was home. The thought of the brunet suddenly made his heart beat fast. There was the guy who owned the manga he read which lead to him watching 12 full episodes of the yaoi anime.

He went to the living to greet Kiba, finding it rude not to even acknowledge that he was already home by pretending to still be asleep in the bedroom. He was greeted back by Kiba who was curious as to what Naruto did for his day-off.

"Yo Naruto. I didn't wake you up this morning just as you told me last night. So, how was your day-off?" the brunet innocently asked.

"I uh…" Naruto was tongue-tied as he recalled the events of earlier morning. There was absolutely, no way in hell he was going to tell a soul about what he just did.

"You uh?"

"I didn't wake up until lunch. I guess my body tried to recover all the rests it missed during the past three days." he lied. "Then I read some of my PT books, checked my FB timeline and then slept some more."

"You actually read a PT book for your day-off? Wow that is something. You an achiever or something?"

"Oh, not really but when you ain't got anything to do then you just gotta do something even if it's boring. Hehe." he chuckled nervously, hoping Kiba would believe his story.

"If you couldn't find something to do you should have just used my gaming console. I told you before, you need not even ask permission."

"Oh, that kinda slipped my mind. I'll be sure to remember it next time."

"Are you hungry?" Kiba asked and at that moment Naruto's stomach chose to growl and it was so loud that the brunet even heard it. "It appears you are. Do you want to eat out or just cook dinner?"

Naruto thought about it and when the image of him and Kiba going out for dinner hit his mind, he couldn't think of it anymore as just two friends hanging out. Thanks to the anime he watched, he began thinking of it to be like a date. And it was between two guys. Him and a gay guy. No, he was so not going out tonight. Because he wasn't gay.

"I'm kinda feeling lazy to go out tonight." he lied again.

"Well, that's the two of us. Let's just cook something easy." Kiba proposed. They still have a lot of food thanks to their grocery shopping yesterday. "Do you mind helping me prepare food?"

Ok, scratch what he said a while ago about not wanting to go out. Kiba wanted his help in preparing dinner? If going out with a gay friend wasn't bad enough, preparing dinner with one sounded more of a thing two person dating would do. But he couldn't say no because Kiba already prepared dinner by himself last time and he couldn't let him do all the work like the brunet was his servant.

"No, I don't mind." Naruto answered nervously. "What do you want me to do?"

"I want to cook corned beef with onions tonight 'cause I'm having some random craving for it. Can you cut the onion for me?" Kiba asked as he took out one big white onion from the mini fridge.

"Su-sure." The blond took the onion and grabbed a knife and chopping board from the cupboard. Kiba on the other hand prepared rice and let it cook in the rice cooker. He also took out one big can of corned beef and opened it, pouring its contents into a small plate. He readied the frying pan where he would cook the corned beef.

Meanwhile, Naruto was just right by his side and was already chopping the white onions. He wasn't really the type of person to cook. He never cooked in the house or maybe he did but frying eggs, ham, bacon and hotdogs didn't require expert hands. He was struggling with the big onion, figuring out how to hold it in place with his left hand as he cut it with the knife on his right. It was easier at first when he was still cutting near the middle where it was bigger but as it gotten smaller, it became harder to stabilize and before he could stop it, the knife slipped and made a cut on his left ring finger.

"AH!"

The blond's shout startled Kiba who was frying crushed garlic on the pan. He immediately turned around and saw the bleeding finger of the blond. Quickly he turned off the electric stove and attended to the blond.

"Hey you okay?" he asked with worry. He took Naruto's hand and inspected the finger. The cut was covered in blood but the finger was intact and the wound didn't look like it needed stitches.

"Place it under running water while I get some band-aid okay." Kiba instructed and he went for his backpack. Naruto followed and opened the faucet, letting the water wash away the blood, pressing his finger to let out as much blood possible to prevent infection. It didn't take long before the bleeding minimized until it stopped. Kiba was back by then bringing a clean cotton and a micropore tape.

"I don't think band-aid's gonna do the trick right away so I just brought this." Kiba took Naruto's hand again, the blond unable to move as he just let his roommate handle his wound. He knew he could do it on his own but wrapping it with cotton and tape was gonna be hard for only one hand to do.

Just as Naruto had expected he would do, Kiba placed a cotton over the wound to prevent the bleeding, or absorb anything that will come out and wrapped micropore tape around the finger to hold the makeshift dressing in place.

"There you are." Kiba said, giving a smile to Naruto. The blond's cheeks heated up and a blush formed on them.

"Tha-thank you." he said, after a few seconds of finding his voice.

"No problem." Naruto felt his finger ache and when he looked at it, he could see that Kiba's hand was still holding his own. Five seconds passed and Kiba still wasn't letting go.

"Uh, you can let go of my hand now." Naruto said anxiously. His heart beat even faster and he had to look away from Kiba. The brunet quickly took his hand off at Naruto's prompt, making a nervous chuckle as he scratched his head in apology.

"Oh yeah, sorry. I didn't make you uncomfortable did I?"

"N- no." the blond denied.

"I'll finish up here. Just rest your finger for a while and make sure the wound doesn't reopen." Naruto agreed and excused himself, sitting on the couch and watched TV. He almost couldn't believe what just happened. To be honest he felt like a girl, being tended by Kiba like that. What happened was so cliché that it felt like something he could find in one of those yaoi mangas.

When Kiba's cooking was finished and the rice was fine to eat, Naruto stood up and got his share. Kiba did the same and both sat beside each other on the couch having no other place to sit down with a table.

"Uhm, I just wanna remind about the basketball game on Saturday. It's gonna be at one of the public basketball courts in the city. We need to be there by 6 AM so we won't have trouble in competing for the court with other people."

"Thanks for reminding. I'm really excited about it, even though the last time I played was around 3 months ago." Naruto responded, making the conversation as casual as possible. A conversation between two friends.

"My buddies from our school will be playing with us. All of them take sport science, three of which are my classmates and the other three are a year younger than us."

"Oh, this really tastes delicious. How come you can cook so good? Is that a perk of being gay?" Before Naruto realized what he said, the words have already come out his mouth. It made Kiba turn towards him with a grim look.

"You know, we aren't that close enough for you to be mentioning my homosexuality like that." Kiba warned in a voice which scared Naruto enough to make him freeze on his seat. Kiba's brown eyes suddenly seemed sharper and they looked at Naruto's own blue eyes as if they were boring right through his soul. His breathing even stopped.

"Oh come on, you are so easy to frighten." Kiba suddenly burst into a fit of laughter and tapped on Naruto's shoulder to calm the tense blond down. "You're gonna make me wonder if you're the gay one and not me. But then I was just kidding. I'm used to the 'gay' word being mentioned in conversations. Even my friends sometimes call me 'fag' or 'cocksucker' as a nickname or to joke with me but it doesn't affect me anymore." Naruto's jaw almost dropped when he heard the word 'cocksucker' and wondered why in the world Kiba was telling him something so, taboo. Kiba didn't seem to notice Naruto's reaction and continued.

"Well as long as they don't abuse it. But then again, being gay has nothing to do with my cooking skills. My older sister Hana used to always have me help her in the kitchen back when I was in high school and the skills just stuck with me I guess."

Thankfully, Kiba's words calmed Naruto down and his breathing returned to normal.

"You scared me big time there Kiba. Anyway, I'm sorry about the gay comment."

"Nah, don't mind it. It's not like I'm insecure about it." he said, hoping it would calm Naruto down a bit. "Well I used to be back in high school and back then I was wishing I was straight but ever since coming out I gained confidence and became happy with being gay. And if people ever insult me for it, they can just answer to my fists and muscles." Kiba said as he flexed his biceps to show Naruto his capable arms.

Both laughed at Kiba's show. Naruto's nervousness died down and they continued to eat their dinner while watching the news. The cut on his finger still ached and when he came to notice it again, he somehow felt a bit of unexplainable tingling in it. It has been more than 10 minutes since Kiba held his hand and yet somehow he could still feel his touch.

This revelation made him a bit scared and no matter how impossible it may sound, a thought actually crossed his mind about him becoming more than friends with Kiba. It seemed farfetched because Naruto knew he didn't feel that way about guys, but how could he know if he never tried?

His mind wandered as he ate, the sound from the TV already muffled into inaudible sounds as the external environment was shut off from his mind. He came to think about it and as a kid, he's always found girls attractive and did not look on boys in that way. He didn't even try to see boys that way because it was told to be a wrong thing to do. Boys like girls and girls like boys. That was the said rule. But what if there was no actual rule and what if he didn't learn that so-called rule in the first place? Would he have found boys the same way he saw girls? Was the attraction he found in girls sort of caused by the norms society has imposed on him when he was a kid?

Minute by minute he found himself digging deeper into these thoughts, trying to find an answer to this predicament he has found himself dragged into. But he couldn't find an answer, well not on his own. That anime he watched, it was probably the one causing him to overthink things. The way the characters were portrayed showed that their love wasn't necessarily based on gender. The characters' sexual orientation had not really been clearly pointed out. They may have really been homosexual but from what he saw in the anime, it was somehow made to show that people do actually feel love with people with people from the same gender and that it was more natural than what he thought. That when you fall in love with someone, a trivial thing such as gender was irrelevant.

And if that was the case, then was it possible that he could see guys in that way? Kiba?

His face heated up at the thought and he noticed that he already finished his meal, lost in his thoughts while he ate it so that it was only then he realized he was done. He stood up from the couch and washed the dishes. Taking a pitcher of cold water from the mini-fridge, he poured it on the glass and he looked at Kiba who facing the TV as he drank the refreshing water.

'Come on, you're only thinking about being with Kiba like that because he's gay and thanks to that anime. You're straight and you don't need to test it. You've had sex so many times with Sakura right? You can get it up with her. So why think about this now?'

His head was starting to hurt from all that musing and he decided that he should just sleep on it. He brushed his teeth and told Kiba he was hitting the sack. He laid down on the bed, thinking about the line-up of patients he had for the next day and it seemed to take his mind off of Kiba and it succeeded in getting him sleepy. His eyes closed and he was sucked into the realm of slumber.

…

" _ **I really like you Naruto."**_

" _ **You… you do?"**_

" _ **Yes. Do you like me too?"**_

" _ **I uh… I don't know."**_

" _ **There's only one way to find out."**_

_**And with that Naruto felt Kiba's lips collide with his. It was soft at first but he felt the increase in passion as Kiba put more pressure on it. Kiba's hand held him by his head and pulled him closer, further deepening their kiss. They pulled back for air and he could see the huge smile on Kiba's face. Naruto felt embarrassed and he knew he was probably blushing but he wanted to kiss him again and so he was the one who leaned closer that time and sealed their lips which the brunet gladly returned.** _

" _ **Would I take that as a yes?" Kiba asked in a smirk.**_

" _ **I… I…"**_

CRING! CRING! CRING! CRING! CRING!

And then Naruto was woken up by his cellphone's alarm. He sat up breathing heavily, memories of his dream still clear. He quickly dismissed the alarm but there was the thought in his mind he couldn't dismiss.

'Oh my god, did I just dream of kissing Kiba? It can't be. Why would I? Damn it I really need to get my mind straight.'

He turned to look at Kiba's bed and saw that the brunet was still asleep, or he may have woken up but chose to stay in bed. He got out of bed to get ready for the day, trying his best to shake away the memory of the dream but trying to do that only yielded the exact opposite result he wanted.

When he took the shower, it was all that ran around his mind. In the end he just chuckled in defeat because he knew there was no point in trying to forget. Love knows no gender right? Maybe he was just bound to know what it truly means and that Kiba was somehow the key into finding his answers.

'There's just no way.'


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 04

We're Friends Aren't We?

"So, this is the place." Kiba announced as he and Naruto arrived at the basketball court they were going to be playing at. It was Saturday and Naruto's day-off and the day they scheduled their basketball game with Kiba's friends from his university.

"Street ball huh?" Naruto stated as he eyed the place. There were already six people playing a half-court game on the court. He watched them and could see they weren't just there to play around. They were good.

"It appears we're the last ones to arrive. Those are my schoolmates whom we'll be playing with." the brunet pointed.

"Hey Kiba, it's about time you got here." shouted one guy when he noticed the two's arrival. He was around Naruto's height from what the blond estimated, with silver hair that fell down to his shoulders.

"Yeah. But it's not as if we're late. We still have two minutes before the agreed time." Kiba yelled back to the guy. Kiba then spoke to Naruto. "That one is Suigetsu, a classmate of mine and I'll introduce you to them shortly."

Naruto nodded and they continued to walk their way to sit on one of the benches beside the court. They watched as the six guys played and it didn't take long for them to conclude their game.

"That was a good warm-up." one guy said as he walked towards them while making stretches on his arms. "So, who's your friend Kiba?"

"Yeah, right. Guys so uh," Kiba spoke loudly as to catch all of the others attention. "This is my roommate Naruto. He's a physical therapy intern at Konoha General Hospital and I managed to get him to come join us in our game."

Naruto did a small wave of his hand as met Kiba's friend.

"Hm, you're hot. Has Kiba ever made a move on you 'cause I swear you're definitely his type." one other guy said to Naruto. These made Naruto blush and Kiba embarrassed.

"Shut up Zaku!"

"Don't get all defensive. It only makes it more obvious you like him." Zaku smirked. He wasn't gay but it wasn't as if straight people can't tell when a person is good looking and he was the one in their group of friends who liked to tease Kiba.

"Would you just stop it? We don't want to make Naruto uncomfortable." Kiba pleaded. Naruto just stood still in his place, unable to speak about what he just heard but his mind now swimming with thoughts about whether Kiba might like him or not.

"Anyway, that loud-mouthed one is Zaku and he's the same year as Suigetsu and I." Kiba explained to the blond. "The one with silver hair as I've told you earlier is Suigetsu. He has some crazy fascination with knives and swords."

"Yo." Suigetsu raised a hand to Naruto.

"The one with thick eyebrows is Lee, no offense." Kiba described as he didn't really know how else to introduce him.

"None taken." the bushy browed male said.

"He's insanely fast in the court and can even jump higher than me." Naruto raised his eyebrows, seemingly unable to believe that the bushy browed guy, who also happened to have a strange bowl cut hair, can jump higher than 46 inches. "What's your vertical jump height again Lee?"

"Last time I checked it was 50 inches." Lee replied proudly as he did a thumbs up.

"Wow I would definitely love to see that." Naruto said excitedly. One of the reason he went to play with Kiba was also to see Kiba's own jump.

"Then I'll be happy to show you." Lee stated and then he zoomed off to the court and jumped near the ring, his head clearly seen to be above the ring at his peak. His landing was gracefully turned into a parkour like roll, effectively protecting him from any leg injuries.

"Now that's Lee, hyperactive as ever." Kiba remarked and he and all his other friends laughed softly as Lee returned.

"That was amazing Lee, you're like just the same height as me." Naruto praised and he swore Lee's eyes sparkled hearing his words.

"Thank you Naruto-kun. If you want I can show my workout on how I achieved that incredible jumping power." he said with burning zeal.

"Thank you but I'm afraid I still don't have time to do any training like that. Maybe after I graduate."

"Fair enough."

"Okay moving on," Kiba said after clearing his throat to once again gather their attention as he still wasn't done introducing his schoolmates to Naruto. "The on with the blood red hair is Gaara. He's the same age as us but he started a year later so he's only a third year."

Naruto looked at Gaara, noticing his lack of eyebrows and the red tattoo of the kanji for 'love' on his left forehead. There were dark circles on his eyes making Naruto wonder if the guy ever sleeps. Gaara didn't make any sign of acknowledgement to Naruto and just stared at him. The blond felt goosebumps form on his skin and decided to be careful of Gaara from then on.

"The taller brunet next to him is his older brother Kankuro and he's also my classmate." Kiba continued. "He's a puppet master who somehow ended up in sports science instead of the theater but he's also good in designing work-out machines and that's what he plans on doing after graduation. He even built his own machine for leg exercises to use for his thesis."

"Yo." Kankuro raised a hand, clearly showing how different he was from his little brother. Kiba meanwhile continued.

"The last one with the long brown hair would be Neji and he's been my schoolmate since high school."

"A pleasure to meet you Naruto." Neji said as he extended an arm to Naruto, the first one to do so. Naruto took it and shook hands with him as a sign of formality.

"A pleasure to meet all of you guys too." Naruto said back but then Neji spoke again.

"But now that the introductions are over, let's see what Naruto's got. We'll play whole court 4 vs 4. Kiba would be on one team and Lee on the other. Naruto would be with Kiba so he'd be more comfortable and I will go with Gaara. Then the four of you will choose which side to join. Any objections?"

"I'd say that's fair enough." Zaku agreed to Neji's proposition. "Suigetsu and I will join Kiba's team if it's alright with you Sabakus."

"No objection on our part. Gaara and I will join Lee's team so that means Neji's also with us." Kankuro settled. "Now, let's start this game."

And so the game started with Lee's team taking the first hold of the ball after winning rock-paper-scissors against Kiba. Lee was so fast that he easily crossed over Zaku. Naruto tried to guard him but his movement was so fluid that Naruto fell for a fake and Lee went by him with ease but Lee didn't expect Kiba to suddenly appear before him with his hand already reaching out to steal the ball. Before that happened, Lee made a pass to Kankuro who was already speeding towards the ring. He successfully took the pass and executed a lay-up but it was foiled when Kiba slapped the ball down from above.

"That's so high." Naruto stared in awe at the perfectly executed block and was frozen for a bit. He's never seen a cooler guy than Kiba and that move he made definitely wasn't a sight Naruto could forget.

"Naruto!" Kiba shouted as the ball bounced near him shaking the blond out of his state. He managed to take the ball away before Gaara had a chance to steal it and dribbled towards the other side of the court. He ran as fast as he could, thankful that his arm was still coordinated and he could dribble it at that speed. When he reached the other half of the court, he was met with Neji who guarded him but he saw Zaku waving at him to pass the ball and just as he was near Neji, he made it look like he was going to do a cross over but passed the ball to Zaku. Zaku dribbled the ball towards the ring but because Lee was fast, it made him unable to execute a lay-up as the bushy browed male guarded him but he saw Kiba jumping towards the ring even though the ball wasn't near him. Zaku immediately knew what Kiba was about to do and so he threw it in a direction where Kiba would be able to get the ball. Kiba grabbed the ball with both hand and executed an alley-oop, succeeding in getting the first point in the game.

"Nice one Kiba!" Zaku shouted as they ran to the other side of the court, readying their defense. Naruto soon followed and they continued to play their game.

The game went on with Lee's team taking the lead of 29-28, only one point left for them to win the game. The set rule was that whoever takes 30 points first wins. One basket is equal to one point, regardless of being made inside or outside the three-point line. Everyone on the court was doing their best, especially Kiba's team who was on the defense. Lee had the ball and Kiba was making sure that he couldn't pass by him to make a shot while the others do their best not to let Lee pass the ball.

Lee had no one open to pass the ball to and he tried to make a drive but Kiba's desire not to lose had made his focus increased and he managed to steal the ball. Kiba ran for their basket, all the other players following. But Lee also had that same fire to win and he ran fast and was able to position himself to block Kiba. Kiba somehow anticipated this would happen and he himself knew it was a difficult thing to pass by Lee but he saw that Naruto was open without anyone in position to guard him. He made a quick pass, barely avoiding Gaara's hand who reached out to try and steal it and the ball was caught by Naruto. There was an opening under the court and Naruto took this opportunity and ran towards the basket. He leapt with all his might and tried to do a lay-up but it was foiled when Kankuro appeared from out of nowhere to spike the ball off his hand.

The force was so strong that it off-balanced Naruto and even though he tried to regain his balance, he landed wrongly on the outer side of his right foot instead of the balls of both feet. Naruto felt an intense sharp pain on his ankle at the contact with the ground and before he knew it he was down.

"AH!" Naruto clutched his feet in pain. It was clear as day what happened. His ankle was sprained due to the false landing.

"Naruto are you alright?" Kankuro asked as he immediately headed for the blond. The ball was left dead and all the other players were already encircling Naruto. "Man I'm sorry I didn't mean to hit the ball that hard."

"Ugh. I'm okay. It's just a… grr… sprain." Naruto said, his eyes closing shut every time the pain in his ankle throbbed.

"What do you mean you're okay? You just sprained your ankle while landing. There's no way it's 'just' a sprain." Kiba said. He took hold of Naruto's leg and asked permission from Naruto to take off his shoe to take a closer look on the damage.

"Just be careful." Naruto replied. Kiba untied the lace and carefully slid the shoe off. He also doffed the sock revealing Naruto's ankle which was already showing signs of swelling.

"Hey, someone get ice." Kiba ordered the group.

"I… I'm on it." came the panicked voice of Kankuro. He was feeling bad for Naruto and was feeling responsible for the blond's sprain so he took it upon himself to do whatever he could to help.

"Ah damn that hurts." Naruto grunted in pain as the ankle was moved slightly. "Kiba can you let go of it for a bit? I'm gonna check on it."

"Oh sure. You're the one who knows this better." Kiba receded and gently let go off the leg. Naruto cupped the ankle with both hands and did some maneuvers, or something called a special test to check what structure could have been damaged. Kiba watched as Naruto tilted his own ankle in different directions, hearing him grunt in certain positions that the ankle was brought to.

"I think it's just a Grade I sprain." Naruto said as he finished inspecting his ankle. "I just need to go home and rest it immediately."

"I'll take you home." Kiba said. Being his roommate and the one who invited Naruto to play with them, it was his obligation.

"Thanks Kiba." Naruto smiled shyly. The scene was almost just like when he cut his finger and Kiba was the one volunteering again to tend to him.

"Do you think you can walk?"

"I'll check." Naruto tried to stand up, using Kiba's arm for support. He balanced on one leg and tried to give weight on the other but the pain shot up. "I don't think I should put any more weight on it. And damn I still have duty tomorrow. I really need to get home and rest this if I'm going to treat patients tomorrow."

"Can't you just take a day-off?" Kiba suggested. The two were already walking for the bench, Naruto hopping on one leg and using Kiba as his makeshift crutch.

"I could but then I have to go to a doctor to get a medical certificate because unless I present one, it will be three days make-up duty instead of one."

"I see." Naruto sat on the bench to rest his ankle. He took another closer look on it and the area was indeed starting to swell and already reddening. He couldn't afford to have it more injured as it was then. Luckily he remembered that he had sports tape inside the bag he brought.

"Kiba, can you bring me my backpack?"

"Sure." the brunet complied and went to the other bench where Naruto's unmistakable orange backpack was. He brought it to Naruto and the blond took a white tape from it.

"This is my own Mueller tape but you probably know about it too being in sports." Naruto said. Kiba nodded. They weren't really taught on how to use it but he have seen it being used before by the varsity players in their school.

The tape was somewhat like a cloth. It wasn't elastic and it wasn't that easy to tear. Doing complicated twists and turns of the tape around his foot, ankle and leg which took around 3 minutes since he needed to be very careful, he finished taping his ankle so that it would be more immobile and prevent further damage to the ligament. Naruto tried to move his ankle to check the functionality of the taping and was happy with his work.

"You have to teach me that too some time." Kiba stated, looking amazed at Naruto's work.

"When I get a day-off I could. But you have to buy the tape to use 'cause it's not that cheap."

"Hey, I got the ice!" Kankuro yelled as he ran towards them. "Sorry for taking long. I had to buy from the convenience store across the street."

The ice was inside a plastic bag and Naruto took it from him. He lifted his injured leg up the bench and let his foot rest on top of the bag to elevate it. He grabbed a face towel from his bag and wrapped it around the foot before placing the ice bag on it.

"Ah, that feels good." he sighed when he felt the coolness from the icebag. "I think I'll let this icebag here for 10 minutes. I'm sure you still want to play ball Kiba so just leave me here and I'll just watch."

"Naruto I'm really sorry about this." Kankuro apologized again.

"I told you it's okay. Accidents happen. You don't have to apologize." Naruto insisted, also not wanting to make him feel bad.

"If you say so."

Following Naruto's advice, Kiba and the others played again and did a half-court game, 3 vs 4 with Kiba on the team with 4 people. Lee however got Suigetsu for a teammate since he was the third strongest player making the playing ground even. They played for around fifteen minutes before Kiba's team took the victory, earning a 15-13 score.

"So guys, I guess I have to take Naruto home now." Kiba announced. "Let's play again next time."

"Yeah, you better take your boyfriend home Kiba." Suigetsu teased.

"Shut up shark-teeth!" Kiba growled, his face reddening but not that apparent due to his skin tone. But Suigetsu wasn't done with his teasing yet.

"Hey Naruto, you watch yourself around Kiba huh? I tell you you're definitely his type."

"I told you to shut up!" Kiba growled as he forcefully grabbed Suigetsu by his collar and glared at him, his prominent canines showing. He was at least 4 inches taller than the silver-haired boy and way more muscular.

"Okay, okay, I'll shut up." came the petrified voice of Suigetsu. Everyone else who was watching the exchange burst out in a laugh knowing full well what Kiba was capable of doing. They've gotten in at least two fights before with some other students and no one was able to beat them thanks to Kiba who can knock a guy out in one punch.

Naruto was watching them as well, his heart rising in rate after hearing Suigetsu's teases. What if he really was Kiba's type? What if Kiba does likes him? These thoughts scared him a bit because knowing a girl likes you is far different from knowing that another guy likes you. But that may not be the case because even though Kiba was gay, he really couldn't like every guy he sees. Naruto doesn't like every hot girl he sees and therefore Kiba may not see him that way. It was just Suigetsu's joke.

But why was he feeling bothered thinking about how Kiba might not like him like that?

"We should go." he heard Kiba. He didn't notice him coming up his way, too lost in his thoughts.

"Yeah." Naruto removed the icebag, sat up and wore his backpack. He stood up on one leg, wrapping his right arm around Kiba's shoulders for support. He knew he shouldn't be feeling this nervous around Kiba but that moment he felt butterflies flying inside his stomach. He could feel his own heartbeat. It was almost like that feeling when you have a crush on someone.

'Wait a minute. Does this mean I have a… cr-cr… crush on him?' Naruto stuttered, even in his thoughts he stuttered which was crazy.

'Oh my god he's looking at me.'

"Hey you okay?" asked Kiba.

"Ye-yeah. I'm fine. Lead the way." the blond answered flustered. He was way too close to Kiba and the feeling just seemed to intensify. They walked towards the direction of the street with Naruto continuing to hop on his better leg. But he wasn't used to moving around with one leg and since he could only use one arm to support himself every time he needed to advance his left leg, his arm muscles started to get tired.

"Sorry Kiba but can we just rest for a bit."

"Tired already huh?" Kiba stopped advancing and let Naruto rest. It was maybe around 20 meters more till they reach the taxi waiting spot.

"Yeah. I'm not used to walking like this. But I could always give a little weight on my other leg so I wouldn't get too tired."

"No you can't use the other one." Kiba firmly reiterated. He wasn't the physical therapist, no. But he'd seen how Naruto flinched when he tried to step on that leg earlier. It wasn't an ordinary sprain if it hurt that much to bear weight. Then Kiba thought of an idea which could save both time and it wouldn't tire out Naruto.

He was glad he didn't have to bring his own bag as they decided to just place their things inside Naruto's. Without warning he positioned himself in front of the blond, his back facing Naruto and quickly lifted him up in a piggyback ride.

"Hey Kiba what the heck put me down!" Naruto yelled in surprise.

"Come on this will save us time. You need to rest that foot of yours if you want to go do your duty tomorrow."

"Kiba I'm a grown up man. This is embarrassing."

"It's not embarrassing. And besides, you have that taped ankle to prove you can't walk right now and people would know why I'm carrying you." Kiba reminded. Naruto hadn't worn his shoe again because it would only make his ankle move more in the donning and it would probably hurt a lot. Plus there was the fact that he would be removing it again at the dorm so he just placed his shoe inside the backpack earlier.

"But…"

"No buts." Kiba insisted. Naruto didn't have a choice but to yield. He also had no choice but to wrap his arms around Kiba if he didn't want to fall. But holding him like this, he became afraid that he might actually fall. Just not in the way he wanted.

He couldn't do anything about it and it was just a few meters more but his heart was pounding like crazy. It felt like it was going to burst through his chest and since his chest was against Kiba's back, then it was possible Kiba could feel it too.

At that realization, he abruptly moved back, almost making the two of them fall but Kiba was quick enough to place one leg behind and regained his balance.

"Hey don't move so much Naruto. I almost lost balance there. You wouldn't want to get crushed under me and get more injuries do you?" Well Kiba did have a point. He leaned closer, hoping his heart would calm down even just a bit. But that caring tone Kiba's voice held was doing the exact opposite.

'Damn it Kiba, could I possibly be falling for you?'

…

They ended up visiting a doctor who had a clinic near the university. Naruto figured he should just stay at home the following day to let his ankle rest and he better get the doctor's certificate for his injury so he wouldn't have extra days to make up for. The doctor advised him to take up to two days of rest before he can go back to his PT duties and he also prescribed him pain relievers.

The two arrived at their dorm an hour after they left the court and that time Naruto insisted that Kiba let him walk as there was no way he was going to let anyone else in the dorm see him being carried by Kiba because unlike people from outside, he was definitely going to be seeing these people again for the rest of the two months.

"You know it's kinda ironic how it's the physical therapist who's gonna be needing physical therapy." Kiba said as Naruto finally got on his bed.

"You got that right." Naruto sighed. He didn't expect to get injured in the game and not when the game was almost over. If Lee's team made their basket then he wouldn't have been in his current predicament.

"And since you're injured I guess that leaves me, the roommate, to take care of you." Kiba said. Naruto felt bad for it. He didn't want to trouble Kiba.

'He should be playing with his friends right now and enjoying the weekend but I just had to ruin it.'

"I'm sorry you had to go through this trouble Kiba but you really don't have to do this. Thank you for carrying me back here but I can take care of myself." Naruto told Kiba. The brunet however dismissed his words.

"Don't blame yourself for this Naruto. And it's no trouble for me, really. We're friends aren't we? Friends do this for each other. I'm sure you'd do the same for me."

"I…" Naruto thought about it. Well of course he'd do the same. He wouldn't find it to be trouble to take care of a friend. And Kiba was his friend right? Even if they'd know each other for only a week, he was his friend. "Of course I would."

"I gonna get some ice from the fridge." Kiba announced and he made his way out of the room. Naruto didn't speak up anymore and decided to just let Kiba do what he want. He checked his ankle again and noticed that the tape was starting to peel off. It was probably the water from the icebag that soaked into the tape. He needed to cut the tape off and place a new one or maybe just apply a bandage to help control the swelling. He was so glad that it wasn't swelling that much because he remembered one softball varsity player from his sports rotation who sprained his ankle and it swelled so much his teammates joked about how it was a softball under the skin of his ankle and he ate it because it really swelled so big. Naruto chuckled a bit at the memory. Back then he was always thinking that the players only get injured because they weren't careful enough but being injured himself, he knew that was not the case. There were just things that you couldn't avoid.

The day went on and as Kiba said, he took care of Naruto. They decided to play video games like Tekken 6 and even WWE 2K14. Naruto won most of the matches in Tekken while Kiba wiped Naruto's ass in wrestling, a game Naruto didn't play much.

And as they played, Naruto found himself looking at Kiba more, watching his reactions when he pulled of a heavy-damage move or when it was Naruto who got the best of him. Whenever the game loaded, Naruto would turn to look at Kiba and then quickly looked away when Kiba starts turning to his direction, his heart racing at the fear of being caught. It was just like the way he used to feel for Sakura.

'If he could make me feel this way, does this mean I'm turning gay, for Kiba? But how do I know for sure? It's all so confusing.'

They finished playing at around 11:30 and the two of them could feel the hunger and hear their growling stomachs. They didn't have much breakfast, just an energy bar because of having to go early for the game. They were supposed to eat outside after the game but because of Naruto's injury, they headed home as soon as possible. Kiba stood up from the couch and announced he was going to cook lunch and that Naruto should just stay there and watch TV until he finished cooking. But before Kiba could walk to the kitchen, Naruto stopped him.

"Kiba, can I ask you a question?"

"Huh? A question? Sure."

"I don't want to intrude if it's personal but how did you know that you're gay?" the blond asked in an almost inaudible voice.

"Oh, why the sudden interest?" Kiba smirked and sat back down on the couch, looking directly at Naruto. The blond however couldn't look Kiba in the eye and had to gaze his eyes somewhere else in the room.

"It's uh… I'm just curious. I never had a gay friend before so I can't understand why a guy would like another guy." Naruto finally asked. 'Which is possibly what I'm feeling right now.'

"Well if you really want to know." Kiba took a deep breath before he started to tell Naruto his story. "I think it started when I was 13. I developed a crush on this guy who's a year older than me. He played basketball and was the power forward of the school's team. I watched most of the games because of him. It might have been just admiration but thinking about it now I'd say it was a crush. He was also sort of the reason why I started to play. I never told him how I felt though and he already had a girlfriend."

Naruto listened intently, hoping that maybe Kiba's story could enlighten him about the way he was feeling towards his friend.

"Back at that time I never really understood what being gay meant. I thought it was just what you call those kids who always hang out with the girls and act girly and speak with that funny stereotypical gay accent. I only learned what gay really meant a year after. I got scared when I learned about it because they said it was wrong to like people of the same gender and it made me think that what I felt for that guy back might be an indication of me being gay. So I hid it from my friends and I tried to date a girl because all my other friends have girlfriends. The relationship didn't last and we broke up 'cause I never felt the same way for her as I did for my guy crush. I couldn't see her in the same way. I didn't feel excited in seeing her or being close to her. It was just peer pressure that I decided to date her. I just didn't feel that way for girls so I accepted being gay. I hid it till high school and only came out at college since no one knew me and I was tired of having to hide what I feel."

Naruto thought about it. So Kiba had a crush on one guy and then couldn't see the girls in the same way. But was liking one guy enough to convince someone that he's gay.

"Did you ever have a crush on any other guy after that first one?"

"Actually, yes I have. Back in high school. He was assigned to be my lab partner in chemistry and that was when I felt the same way as I used to with that basketball player. I got nervous around him but still I always wished there was laboratory so I get to work with him. But he also had a girlfriend and his own set of friends so we didn't hang out much beside that class. There was also no way I could tell him about my feelings and be hated by him for it. That's why I don't want to hide my being gay to other people now because I don't want to build friendship with them and then lose it once they learn about it. Not all people are gay friendly and that's why I'm glad you're not a homophobe Naruto." Kiba gave a soft smile to Naruto as he said that.

"I've never really disliked gay people. I believe people shouldn't be looked down upon by loving someone else, no matter who they are." the blond said.

"Naruto."

"Yes."

"Could it possibly be you're asking me this because… you're doubting yourself? That you're starting to think you could possibly be gay too?"

"What, no!" Naruto shouted in a panicked, denying reply. He was so shocked by Kiba's words that he forgot about his ankle and accidentally stepped on it when he stood up from the surprise.

"GAHHH!" he screamed in pain and sat back down instantly and checked his foot.

"That's definitely the sound of one in denial." Kiba laughed at Naruto's display. "But don't worry Naruto. If you ever do have doubts about your sexuality, I'm always here to help."

Naruto on the other hand could only gape at him, frozen in place and unable to say a word back at how Kiba figured him out so easily.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 05

The First Move

Naruto was back to his PT duty. After taking the doctor's advice to get rest for two days, he didn't report for duty on Sunday to make sure his ankle healed properly. When Monday came, he could already move it without it hurting too much. He knew as a PT intern that he needed more rest but he was stubborn and decided to report on that day. Using his Mueller sports tape, he secured his ankle firmly making sure it wouldn't move into any unwanted directions and with the help of some painkillers, he did his duty without a hitch.

Tuesday came and when Naruto thought it would just be like any other day, he was proven wrong when he received a text message from his older brother Kurama.

**_Naruto I know this is not the best time to tell you this with you still on your hospital duty but the guilt of not letting you know sooner is eating me. I've sent pictures on your FB but look at it only once you get home. ONCE YOU GET HOME. I'm sorry Naruto._ **

That was the text message. He received it during lunch break as he was dining with Ino because she was the only other co-intern who had no patients at that time.

Naruto re-read the message from his brother Kurama and he was getting really curious as to what was sent to his FB. It sounded very serious if his brother said he was getting guilty for not informing him sooner and yet he placed a warning not to look at it until he was home meaning it wasn't really that urgent.

"Naruto, you really should stop checking your phone and start eating." Ino reprimanded him. Naruto closed his phone when he heard Ino. "We only have 30 minutes for break and since it took 10 minutes to get our food we don't have the leisure to go on social network."

"Oh, yeah right." Quickly Naruto put his phone back in his pocket and returned to eating his quarter-pound burger. Being a PT intern was a really tough thing to do. Sometimes they even take lunch an hour past their scheduled hour for break and they had to be back in 30 minutes because the patients would already be waiting. But it wasn't his patients that Naruto's mind was filled with when he ate. It was the pictures sent to his FB. What were they about? Why did his brother say that he's sorry in the last part of the text? Was it something his brother did? Or was he sorry for what Naruto would find out?

In the end Naruto didn't check his FB during lunch. He treated around 4 patients that afternoon, the last patient finishing at 5:10 and Naruto finishing his treatment notes by 6 PM. Ino was also busy as well as all his other co-interns. The day was just that toxic and Naruto barely had the time to rest.

When he was given clearance to leave by his staff, he didn't waste time getting out of the hospital. Ino on the other hand had insisted she walk home with Naruto, at least until where she could ride a taxi home to the condo she rents. Since Naruto was ever the gentleman, he let Ino accompany him but his walking pace was fast. He was dying of curiosity to see what the pictures were and he turned on his mobile data to check his FB messenger. He saw Kurama's message and when he opened it, the sight of the pictures that met his eyes stopped him in his tracks. Ino who was a bit behind him bumped into him because of his unannounced stop.

"Hey, don't just stop without notice." Ino said in irritation. She waited to hear a response from Naruto, an apology perhaps but none came. Naruto was still frozen in place, scrolling through the pictures and Ino got curious as to why he would stop just like that. She leaned over his shoulders to see Naruto's hand that was holding the phone, shaking.

"Naruto?" she asked with worry. No response was given and she now looked at what was on the phone. It was a picture of a pale guy with black hair making out with a girl with pink hair. The realization of who the girl was struck Ino, the unmistakable pink hair that Naruto had once given her as a description of his ex-girlfriend being the evidence.

"Oh my god." she gasped as she covered her mouth his one hand. Ino knew that the girl was Naruto's ex and he seeing her making out with another guy must be painful.

"Ho- how could you?" Naruto finally spoke in a soft, cracking voice, his eyes still staring at the phone. "Sasuke. How could you?"

'So Naruto knows who the guy is.' Ino thought.

"Naruto?"

"Huh?" Naruto turned around to look at Ino who was eyeing him with concern. Ino didn't fail to see the tears forming on Naruto's eyes. Naruto quickly turned to look away, not wanting her to see him like that.

Ino didn't know what to say. She's only known Naruto for more than a week and had no clue what exactly he was going through, how deep it was that the picture affected him. She made no move and waited for Naruto to make his own.

"Can I ask you a favor Ino?" the blond spoke. Ino knew it was probably related to the picture and because of that she was willing to give Naruto that favor he asked.

"Yes, sure."

"You live in a condo right? Just you?"

"Yes I do and it's just me. But why do you ask?"

"Do they allow alcohol inside?"

"Yes. Are you planning on drinking tonight?"

"I have no choice. I don't think I'll be able to sleep after seeing that. It hurts so much Ino. He's my best friend, and he dared do this to me."

Ino gasped after learning who the guy was. Naruto's best friend. And he made-out with Naruto's ex. It was like a sword stabbed from the back.

"Can I stay for the night, please?" Naruto pleaded, holding both of her hands as he looked at her with desperation. "I can't drink at our dorms and I can't go to a bar, not with my hospital uniform. It's both our day-offs tomorrow anyway, so please."

Ino couldn't consider herself as Naruto's friend yet but she could still empathize. In truth, she knew what it felt to see an ex-lover with another person. She herself has had bouts of drinking to try and forget the hurt she felt. She knew it was only temporary relief but if it was what he wanted, then she would give it. Make Naruto forget for even just one night.

"Okay."

…

"You fucking bastard! How could you do this to me Sasuke?!" Naruto cried, clenching hard on his hair still finding it hard to believe his best friend could betray him like that. There wasn't only the picture of him making-out with Sakura. Kurama by chance happened to walk in on the club that the two chose to hang out. Kurama easily recognized them, especially Sakura who he knew dumped his younger brother. He didn't know why the two were there 'cause when he saw them they were already grinding against each other on the dance floor as if without care in the world who sees them. That was the first picture Kurama took, of them dancing together. They started making-out while running their hands around each other's body. That was the second picture Kurama took. It didn't take long and Kurama saw them leaving the club with Sakura dragging Sasuke by his arm, the two obviously drunk. He already had a clue what they were up to but Kurama decided to follow them. He ended up driving to Sakura's apartment, a place he knew because it was where Naruto would sometimes spend his nights with. The third and last picture was of the two of them entering the dark apartment.

Kurama also said in the message along with the pictures that even though the rest could have been figured out, he wanted to be sure. He went closer to the apartment and the sounds he heard was proof enough.

"Of all the girls you could fuck why did it have to be her?!" the blond shouted again to the non-existent Sasuke. He couldn't stop crying, his tears still flowing down his cheeks. Ino couldn't do anything to calm down Naruto and she was beginning to regret her decision to let Naruto stay for the night to drink.

Naruto poured Vodka yet again to the small cup, taking in his 10th shot for the night. His face was already flushed and he was getting tipsy on the couch.

"Naruto, I think you've had enough." Ino finally said. Naruto turned to look at her and she was glad he could still hear her.

"It's not working Ino." Naruto sighed in defeat. "Damn it! It hurts so much. Maybe I wouldn't be like this if she did it with some guy I do not know but my best friend, fuck! What did she want to prove? She knew Sasuke was my best friend."

He sobbed and poured another shot of the alcohol in the glass and drank it, feeling it burn inside his throat.

"I knew that she liked him ever since I introduced her to my best friend in high school but I just never thought…"

"Hey, it's okay." Ino sat down next to Naruto and patted him on the back. "Come on, I thought you wanna forget about this for tonight. Thinking over it is only gonna do that exact opposite."

Ino took the small glass away from Naruto and set it on the far side of the table. Naruto's eyes followed the glass but did nothing to get it back. Meanwhile, Ino started to run her fingers on Naruto's blond locks, surprising Naruto but again he did nothing to stop her.

"Your hair is so bright, unlike mine." she stated. Her hand travelled back down to Naruto's nape and she caressed him there. "We should have some fun, something to help you forget about tonight."

Before Naruto could reply Ino stood up and sat on Naruto's lap with a devilish smile. She pinned down Naruto's shoulders, looking at him with lust. Naruto's mind was hazy and he let those plump lips close in with his own.

His half-lidded eyes suddenly grew wide as he at last comprehended what was going on. He put his hand on the back of Ino's head and pulled her closer to put in more pressure into the kiss. But it was all in vain when Naruto didn't feel anything good about the kiss. It just felt, wrong. Realizing this he pushed Ino back with both hands, panting heavily for the moment that he forgot to breathe.

"Stop."

"Naruto, don't be such a killjoy." Ino just chuckled. "Just let loose for tonight. Both of us are awfully stressed from internship and you need to get your mind off of some things. Let's do both ourselves a favor, okay?"

Ino smiled at him and once again tried to pin Naruto on the couch and attacked his lips, pushing down harder than before. She also moved down to kiss on Naruto's neck and down to his collar bone. She took Naruto's hands and she guided them to run up her waist and to cup her breasts, moaning at the touch. She started to grind her hips against Naruto, making herself moan even louder.

But Naruto, he wasn't responding at all. It took a bit of time for her to notice this and she stopped, eyeing Naruto with an unbelieving look. It was such a huge blow to her pride. No other guy she came up to before has ever rejected her like this. She moved her hips down to align directly with Naruto's own and grinded with it once again only to find that he wasn't hard. She has never felt so embarrassed in her life knowing that she couldn't even rouse Naruto and he was already drunk. He was supposed to have pinned her down on the couch minutes ago and fucking her relentlessly.

"What's wrong with you?" she yelled at Naruto, tears beginning to form in her eyes. Clenching her eyes shut she got away from Naruto and ran to her bedroom, slamming the door down in the process.

Naruto sat there motionless, uncaring of the girl he just turned down. But what could he do? Whatever Ino did, it didn't make him want her. It didn't instill in him the desire to have sex with her. He was just really heartbroken and he didn't think even she could make him forget what his ex and soon to be ex-best friend did to him.

His head was starting to ache and he could feel the vessels up there throbbing strongly. He initially planned to drink until he got wasted but Ino was right. It wasn't leading him to anywhere. He was foolish enough to think that. And so he stood up slowly, grabbing for the arm rest of the couch when the dizziness increased to keep his balance. He let himself get a bit more accustomed to standing and when the dizziness went down a bit, he grabbed his orange backpack and went out of Ino's place.

When he got back to his apartment it was already around 9 in the evening. He was thankful that he sobered up a bit to be able to grab a taxi, tell him where he lives and pay the fare without making a fool of himself.

"Naruto, where have you…" Kiba greeted his roommate at his arrival but stopped as he saw how red Naruto's face was and how his shoulders slumped down like zombie's.

"Water. I need some water." was all Naruto could say. He went straight for the fridge and swigged down his own tumbler filled with the chilled water.

"Have you been drinking?" Kiba asked even though he know full well that the blond has been drinking evidenced by that flushed face of his.

"Yeah." Naruto replied lazily. "And you know what, I just turned down SEX from a very hot girl." The blond didn't know why he added that part but maybe he said it because he himself couldn't believe it. It wasn't like he haven't had one-night stands before but with Ino, he really didn't feel the desire, the need and it was bugging his mind the whole time he sat inside the taxi home.

"Oh-kay?" Kiba said back but confused as to why Naruto was telling him that.

"Kiba, if your best friend, someone you've been friends with for more than 15 years, dare fucking have sex with your ex-girlfriend… or boyfriend whatever, what would feel huh?" Naruto asked in a devastated voice. Kiba was stunned at the question, not expecting it would just come out of the blue. Naruto on the other hand sat down on the floor defeated. His head was still pounding and he hasn't eaten dinner yet. He didn't have the strength enough to keep on standing.

"Hey are you okay?" Kiba quickly ran to Naruto and kneeled in front of him.

"No, I'm not. Just tell me your answer Kiba? Am I wrong to feel this way? Am I drinking because of something stupid? I know she's my ex-girlfriend but why do I feel so betrayed?"

"I'd probably feel the same." the brunet finally answered. "He's your best friend. If anything, he should not have done anything with her as respect to you. He should have known you loved her, and he should have known it would hurt you to know she did it with another person, even if you're not together anymore. That's why you feel betrayed. Because he knows."

"Why did he do it then? If he knew he shouldn't have."

"He's the only one who can answer that but as you told me, he's your best friend, right? I don't know what happened, how you learned about this but maybe you got it wrong. Maybe he didn't mean to do it." Kiba told him.

"He didn't?" After that Naruto remained silent for a long time. Kiba just watched as his roommate stared into the floor, probably lost in his thoughts about what the brunet has said. But the floor was cold and seeing Naruto's state, Kiba knew he had to get him to bed. He tapped on Naruto's back, ushering him back into reality.

"Come on. The floor's cold. It's not a good thing to stay there." Kiba reached his hand out and Naruto grabbed on it. And as Kiba's hand grabbed his forearm and his own hand grabbed onto Kiba's, a strange feeling suddenly burst in his stomach at the touch of their skins. Naruto couldn't move and he stared into Kiba's eyes. No, the feeling wasn't strange at all because he felt it before. Back then, when Kiba held his hand for far too long when he cut his finger, when he held onto Kiba for support when he sprained his ankle, when Kiba carried him on his back, he felt just like that. Those memories came rushing down and there he was still frozen in place at Kiba's touch.

'Why is he making me feel this way? Why could he and not Ino? What does it mean? Am I really turning gay for him?'

These thoughts entered his mind again, just like that time after waking up from the dream of him kissing Kiba. That dream where he didn't push the brunet away but rather kissed him back.

He was already standing up but his mind was still thinking heavily of the implications of what he was feeling right then. He was so confused, Kiba was making him confused. He wanted answers, badly. What was he feeling? Why did he dream that? Why is it Kiba?

His body moved on its own and he lunged for Kiba, kissing him on the lips. Kiba's eyes were wide in shock and he couldn't move. He wanted to kiss Naruto, ever since that day he first saw him behind that door of their dorm. So he closed his eyes and returned the kiss, pushing back gently against Naruto.

Naruto was the first one to pull away and Kiba opened his eyes. The sight that greeted him was the blond whose eyes showed shock and with his mouth agape, as if it was only then that he realized what he just did. His also flushed cheeks seemed to become even brighter.

"Na…" Kiba tried to speak but was cut off when the blond pushed him aside and ran for the bedroom.

"Wait." Kiba reached his hand out to stop Naruto and he successfully grabbed him by his backpack that he still hasn't taken off.

"Kiba let go of me!" ordered Naruto but Kiba only tightened his hold. Naruto tried to break free and he slipped his arms from the slings of the bag but Kiba managed to react to that and grabbed his forearm.

"I told you to let go of me." Naruto said again, using his free hand to try and remove the grip Kiba had on him. But he couldn't remove it, not in his state. He was drunk, well probably already sobered up after doing that move against Kiba, but he was tired. He didn't have the strength and even if he wasn't in the influence of the alcohol, Kiba was just larger and stronger than him. His free hand dropped and he ceased struggling.

With an embarrassed and flustered look he turned to Kiba's direction but his head facing down, unable to meet the brunet's eyes. He felt a hand cup his chin, making his head turn to Kiba's direction but he quickly averted his gaze to the side. That was why he didn't see Kiba leaning closer towards him as he was met with a kiss.

It was almost like the reverse happened. He now was the one whose eyes closed after the contact of their lips. Just as when he kissed Kiba, he could feel the butterflies prancing inside his stomach. Kiba held him tightly, his arms moving on their own to wrap around Kiba as well. His eyes opened at last to meet Kiba's own. Kiba pulled away after that with Naruto feeling yearn at the loss of contact. Kiba's hold on him loosened so he let go as well.

"I…" Kiba started to say but stopped as he couldn't come up with anything to say to explain his actions. Naruto stood there waiting but only silence followed. But he didn't need to hear anything yet from Kiba as those two kisses have just answered, even if incompletely, what he felt for the brunet.

"I think I like you Kiba." he told him in a very soft voice, the answer that was given to him by the two kisses they shared. "I don't know how, or why, but you make my heart beat fast when you're near me. I feel butterflies on my stomach when we touch. I even dreamed about the two of us kissing. I'm sorry I kissed you. I'm just so confused and I wanted to know what I'm really feeling."

"Don't apologize for kissing me."

"Huh?"

"Because as you can see, I liked it." Kiba said, giving a smirk to prove it.

"But I shouldn't come up on you like that, without your consent. I couldn't control myself and it might have been the alco- hmmpphhh." Naruto tried to explain but he was silenced by Kiba who captured him in another kiss.

"You talk too much. I like you too." Kiba whispered to Naruto's ear.

"You do?"

"Of course I do."

"Can you please kiss me again?"

'You need not even ask."

And so Kiba kissed him for the 4th time that night with Naruto meeting him halfway. It was soft when their lips met but the desire Naruto has acquired after the first taste of those lips grew and soon he was the one pushing hard against Kiba. Both moaned into the kiss. Kiba was pushed against the wall but soon reversed their position and now had Naruto pinned against it. He showed dominance in the kiss and they made-out until their lips were almost to the point of bruising.

Both were panting hard when they finally pulled away from each other. Naruto was sober than ever and he knew there was no way he was going to forget what just happened. He liked it, so much. Kissing Kiba, another guy. It scared the hell out of him but he liked it.

"What does this mean for us?" Naruto asked. Would they still be friends? Or did that kiss just turn them into something more?

"Well, that just means we like each other."

"But…"

"Do you want to date me?"

"Wha-what? Da-date you?" Naruto was surprised by that question. His mind showed him images of him dating Kiba, a guy. Of them holding hands together as they walked. Of them watching a movie. Of them eating dinner together in a fine restaurant as they talked about themselves. But he was a guy. Could he even date another guy? And not to mention he was also his friend and roommate.

"Well, I wouldn't mind going out with you Naruto, but if you don't want to then that's okay." Kiba said, hiding the sound of disappointment at the possibility of Naruto not wanting to date him by a smile. "You're probably still adjusting to this. Take all the time you need to think about it."

"I… I will. Thanks." Naruto sighed in relief. At least he didn't have to answer the question right then. He was still grasping his true feelings towards Kiba. He already knew he liked him, but if it was enough to date him he didn't know.

GGRROOWWLL!

"What was that sound?" Kiba asked. Naruto knew full well the answer to that.

"I think that was my stomach. I haven't eaten dinner yet."

"Tsk tsk tsk. Drinking already without even eating first. You should take care of yourself better you know." Kiba walked towards the fridge and took out food that he stored. "Well since I always cook a lot there's still the spaghetti I cooked earlier this evening. I'll heat it up for you."

Kiba placed it in the microwave and set the timer for 2 minutes.

"Thanks Kiba." Naruto said, touched by Kiba's concern for him.

"Don't mention it. Now just wait on the couch for your food."

"Okay."

A/N:

That's chapter 5 and Naruto surprisingly rejects Ino. However for the NaruIno fans out there I've written an alternative one-shot for what would have happened if Naruto accepted Ino's offer. Title is 'Let's Do Ourselves a Favor'. Just check out

https://archiveofourown.org/works/14416476


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